<b>Chapter </b><b>86 </b>
E & Alexander
E
“Gabriel!” ! shouted, pounding my fists against the metal. “Gabriel, let me out!”
Bot there was no response; just the ominous hum of the vault’s security systems kicking into overdrive. The timer on the wall continued its countdown, and I could already feel the air growing thinner.
My chest tightened as I struggled to draw in a full breath. The oxygen was slowly being sucked out of the room, just like Gabriel had warned me about. I pressed my palms against the door and threw my full weight against it, but it didn’t budge.
“Help!” I screamed. “Somebody help me!”
Who would hear me down here? The vault was likely soundproof, and Alexander was probably still out and about dealing with pack business. Gabriel was the only one who knew where I was, and he had likely deliberately locked me in here.
That bastard. He’d probably nned this from the moment I used my Luna Voice on him.
As the seconds ticked by, my breathing became morebored. Each inhale felt shallow<i>, </i>like trying to breathe through a straw.
“The baby,” I whispered, eyes widening as the realization struck me. Goddess, what was this doing to the baby?
As if on cue, sharp cramps suddenly shot through my lower abdomen, making me double over with a gasp. My hands flew to my stomach as another wave of pain hit me. Theck of oxygen was affecting both of us.
“No, no, no,” I whispered, sliding down the door until I was sitting on the cold floor. “Please don’t let anything happen to the baby.”
The cramps intensified, and I found myself rocking back and forth as tears streamed down my face. After everything we’d been through, I couldn’t lose this baby now. Not like this.
The timer showed thirty seconds left.
My vision started to blur around the edges, dark spots dancing in front of my eyes. This was it. I was going to die down here, suffocated in Alexander’s precious vault, and my baby was going to die with me.
All because of a locket.
Twenty seconds.
<b>I </b>closed my eyes and pressed both hands against my stomach, trying to send every ounce of love and protection I could to the tiny life growing in my belly. My wolf howled, but even <i>her </i>strength was waning. She couldn’t protect us.
Ten seconds.
Suddenly, the machinery whirred to a stop. I heard the lock disengaging, the heavy wheel turning, and then the door swung open so hard and fast that <b>it </b>crashed against the wall behind it like it didn’t weight two hundred pounds.
Alexander was standing in the doorway, face twisted with fury. Behind him, Gabriel looked pale and shaken.
“E!” Alexander raced over to me and dropped to a crouch, his hands immediately going to my face. “Are you hurt? Is the baby–”
“I’m okay,” I gasped, still struggling to catch my breath. “I think I’m okay.”
Alexander’s green eyes zed as he helped me to my feet, one arm wrapped tightly around my waist. When he turned to face Gabriel<b>, </b><b>the </b><b>temperature </b><b>in </b>the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
<b>Mon</b><b>, </b>25 AUTODO
“Exin<b>.</b><b>” </b>
Gabriel swallowed hard. “The security measures turned on unexpectedly, Alpha. I couldn’t get the door open. Trust me, I tried
Alexander looked at me. I was still too breathless to speak. Frankly, I didn’t entirely believe Gabriel; but I also doubted he would do something as heinous as lock his Luna in the vault. He knew damn well he would be caught and severely punished if he had.
“Why was <b>she </b>in here in the first ce?” Alexander finally demanded.
I found my voice before Gabriel could answer. “I was looking for my locket. He told me you’d had it repaired and added to the collection.”
Alexander whipped around to stare at me. “What?”
“Gabriel said you realized it was valuable and wanted to keep it for yourself. That you’d already had him put it in the vault.” My throat felt raw from shouting, but I forced the words out. “I just wanted to get it back.”
“E, no.” Alexander’s expression shifted from fury to something that looked almost like pain. “That’s not what happened at all.”
He turned back to Gabriel, and I’d never seen him look so dangerous. “Tell her the truth. All of it.”
Gabriel’s face went ashen. “Alpha, please-”
“Now.”
The Beta’s whole body trembled as he fought against thepulsion, but Alexander’s authority was absolute. “I lied,<i>” </i>Gabriel whispered. Alexander never wanted to keep the locket. He had it repaired for you. As a gift.”
My heart stuttered. “What?”
“He wanted to surprise you.”
I slowly turned to stare at Alexander, who was watching me with an unreadable expression on his face. He’d wanted to give me back the locket. Not take it away, but return it to me.
“Where is it now?” Alexander asked Gabriel. “I told you to pick it up from the jeweler today.”
Gabriel looked like he wanted to vomit. “I… I was angry. About Luna, E constantly using her Luna Voice on me, bossing me around. So I…” He swallowed hard and stared at his feet. “I flushed it down the toilet.“/
The words made me stagger backwards a step. Gone. Lilith’s locket was gone forever.
Alexander wentpletely still. When he spoke again, his voice was so low and dangerous that it was hardly more than a growl. He took a step toward Gabriel. “You. Did…” Another step. “What?”
“I flushed it. It’s gone.” Gabriel shrank beneath Alexander’s shadow. I was angry and I wasn’t thinking clearly and-”
“Get upstairs,” Alexander snarled, releasing him. “We’ll finish this conversation in private.”
Alexander
Twenty minutester, I found myself in my office watching Gabriel clutch his face where I’dnded a switch punch the moment we were alone. His lip was split and bleeding, and his eye was already swelling shut.
“You deliberately put my mate and child at risk,” I whispered. “As if it wasn’t already bad enough that you destroyed something precious to her out of spite. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t strip you of your rank right now.”
“Because I have information you need to see.”
Chapter 86.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses
“It’s about your parents.” Gabriel reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I’ve been investigating E’s <b>pack</b><b>, </b>just like your asked. And my operative found this.” He held out the paper with a shaking hand. “Hidden in their territory’s archives.”
I snatched the document from him and unfolded it. My blood ran cold as I read the familiar handwriting. It was a letter from E’s father to someone whose name had been deliberately obscured. But the content was clear enough.
“The Ashw Alphas have be too powerful. I think I know of a way to get them out of the picture. And their son is young and impressionable…
My hands shook as I read it again. The letter was dated just two months before my parents‘ deaths.
<b>“</b>This doesn’t prove E knew anything about it,” I said, looking up at the Beta.
“You shouldn’t be so quick to trust herpletely. Her family clearly had ns for you long before your marriage was arranged. They thought you would be easy to manipte with your parents out of the picture, so they could gain influence from Ashw without incriminating themselves or causing a
war.”
Gabriel was right; the letter explicitly stated that my parents could be taken out in an “ident“, that it would leave me in charge and that I was young enough to manipte.
I’d always had my suspicions of just that, but seeing it written out like this….
And then, of course, there was E. This letter implied that they sent her here to manipte me.
But E was younger than me; it was very possible that she hadn’t been aware of her role. And after everything I had seen her family do her, the horrible way they treated her, I still wasn’t sure if she would have actually done their bidding if they had outright ordered her to.
For all 1 knew, she was just as much of a victim in this as I was.
“Keep investigating,” I said curtly. “I want concrete proof that E was knowingly involved in this scheme. And one more thing.” I fixed him with a stare that made him flinch. “One more slip–up like today and you’ll be permanently demoted to Omega. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Good. Now get out of here and go see the pack doctor.”
Gabriel scurried away, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the damning letter hidden in my desk. I sat there for several minutes, trying to reconcile the E I hade to know recently with the possibility that she might be exactly what we had always suspected.
But I couldn’t think about that right now. Whatever the truth was about her family, E was hurting. My wolf wouldn’t let me sit here and stew when she and our baby had just nearly been suffocated.
I found her in our bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. She’d been crying, judging from the red rings around her eyes and the way she quickly looked away when I entered.
“Hey,” I said softly.
“It’s really gone, isn’t it?” She didn’t look at me.
“I’m sorry. Gabriel will be punished for what he did.”
“It doesn’t matter. Nothing’s going to bring it back.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “That locket was precious to Lilith. Precious to me<i>. </i>She’s the mother I never got to have, and I lost the one heirloom she had.”
The hurt in her words made my wolf whine pitifully. Without thinking, I reached over and took <i>her </i>hand. “Come with me.”
She looked confused but let me lead her back down to the vault. I punched in the code and opened the door, then guided her inside to one of the <b>disy </b>cases near the front.
<b>13:28 </b>Mon, 25 Aug ·UDO
tpulled out my keys and unlocked the case, reaching inside to retrieve a delicate diamond ne. The stones caught the light and threw <b>tiny </b>rainhours across the walls as I lifted it out.
“This was my great–grandmother’s,” I said, turning to face E. “I think you should wear it.”
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